Wonton Egg Noodle Soup with Roast Pork

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

A clear, sweet pork broth poured over springy egg noodles, plump pork-and-shrimp wontons, and slices of glossy char siu. The trick to making this a Tuesday-night bowl: fold a big batch of wontons on the weekend and freeze them flat, buy your roast pork from a Chinese barbecue counter, and keep a jar of crisp fried garlic oil in the fridge. Broth simmers mostly unattended, so dinner is really just boiling water in two pots.

Ingredients

• 2 lb pork neck bones or pork leg bones
• 1 lb pork shoulder, in one piece
• 1 large yellow onion, halved and peeled
• 3 inch piece fresh ginger, halved lengthwise
• 1 oz dried shrimp, rinsed (optional)
• 1 medium daikon radish, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar or 1 small piece rock sugar
• 1 tbsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 12 cups cold water

• 12 oz ground pork (not lean)
• 8 oz raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, half minced and half chopped chunky
• 3 scallions, finely minced
• 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp cold water
• 48 thin square wonton wrappers (Hong Kong style, yellow)

• 12 oz fresh thin egg noodles (wonton noodles), 4 nests
• 12 oz store-bought char siu (Chinese barbecue pork), thinly sliced
• 1 bunch baby bok choy or yu choy, halved lengthwise

• 1/3 cup neutral oil
• 8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup cilantro leaves
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• to taste ground white pepper
• to serve chili garlic sauce and hoisin

Instructions

1. Blanch for a clear broth: put the pork bones and the whole piece of pork shoulder in a large pot, cover with cold water, and bring to a hard boil over high heat. Boil 5 minutes, then drain and rinse every piece under cold running water, scrubbing off any dark scum. Scrub the pot clean too — this step is what keeps the finished soup transparent.
2. Return the bones and shoulder to the clean pot with 12 cups cold water. Bring to a bare simmer over medium heat (about 15 minutes), skimming any foam with a fine strainer. Meanwhile, char the onion halves and ginger directly in a dry skillet over high heat, cut side down, 4–5 minutes until blackened in spots.
3. Add the charred onion and ginger, dried shrimp, daikon, sugar, and 1 tablespoon salt to the pot. Adjust the heat so the surface barely trembles — never a rolling boil — and simmer uncovered 1 hour. Pull the pork shoulder out at the 45-minute mark, once it is tender enough to slice; cool it, then slice thin and reserve (it can go in the bowls alongside the char siu).
4. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean pot, discarding the solids. Season with the fish sauce and more salt until it tastes lightly sweet and savory on its own. You should have about 8 cups. Keep hot over low heat, or cool and refrigerate up to 4 days.
5. Make the wonton filling: in a bowl, combine the ground pork, all the shrimp, scallions, ginger, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and white pepper. Whisk the cornstarch with 1 tablespoon cold water and add it. Stir vigorously in one direction for 1–2 minutes until the mixture is sticky and holds together in a mass.
6. Fold the wontons: keep the wrappers under a damp towel. Place 1 rounded teaspoon of filling just off-center on a wrapper, dab water along two edges, fold into a triangle and press out the air, then pull the two long corners together and pinch to seal so the filling sits in a plump 'head' with a ruffled tail. Set finished wontons on a parchment-lined sheet pan, not touching. Work through all 40–48.
7. To freeze: slide the uncovered sheet pan into the freezer for 1 hour until the wontons are hard, then transfer to a zip-top bag and freeze up to 2 months. Cook them straight from frozen — do not thaw.
8. Fry the garlic oil: heat the neutral oil with the sliced garlic in a small skillet over medium-low, stirring, 4–6 minutes until the slices are pale gold and the bubbling slows. Immediately pour through a strainer into a heatproof jar; spread the garlic on a paper towel to crisp. It keeps a week refrigerated.
9. Cook the wontons: bring a wide pot of water to a gentle boil (a violent boil tears the wrappers). Add 8–12 wontons per serving and simmer 4 minutes for fresh, 6–7 minutes for frozen, until they float and the wrappers look translucent and slick. Test one: the shrimp should be opaque and the filling firm. Lift out with a spider and divide among 4 large bowls.
10. In the same water, blanch the bok choy 60–90 seconds until the stems are crisp-tender, and remove. Then cook the egg noodles 60–90 seconds, loosening the nests with chopsticks — they should stay distinctly springy. Drain well, shake dry, and toss each portion with 1 teaspoon of the garlic oil before adding to the bowls so they don't clump.
11. Assemble: nestle the noodles beside the wontons, fan the sliced char siu and the simmered pork shoulder over the top, and tuck in the greens. Ladle in about 2 cups of very hot broth per bowl, pouring down the side so you don't disturb the toppings.
12. Finish each bowl with fried garlic, sliced scallions, cilantro, and a generous pinch of white pepper. Serve with lime wedges and small dishes of chili garlic sauce and hoisin for dipping the pork.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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